Before he was officially offered the role, the rumors were flying and Kurt had no clue about the film. All of a sudden, he was being questioned in interviews and finally got the phone call. 

Ph: Chuck Zlotnick..©Marvel Studios 2017

“I was doing this publicity stunt for Tarantino’s movie, The Hateful Eight, and one day all of a sudden. “Oh wait, this is great, this is exciting, are you going to do this?” And then the people in the interview started to ask me, are you going to do this Guardians of the Galaxy? Are you going to play Peter Quill’s father?

I literally had no idea what they were talking about ‘cause I hadn’t seen the movie. And I just said, no. And it was like, wow, whatever this is they’re excited about it. And the next day I got the official word and I said, I need to read it and I need to see the movie. And when I saw the movie right away I kinda fell in love with it and it just got better and better. But more than anything else I was watching Chris and saying, yeah, I get that energy. I get that style.

And I realized, from movies that I had done in the past, I would bring the right baggage here. And as I read the screenplay, it was even more so. And I wanted to do it but I also.”

“So because I was going to do the movie, because of the reaction that I got, I was concerned that the audience would go in thinking, oh great, this is just right. “And Kurt Russell’s responsible for [ruining] this for me. And I said, I just wanna make sure we hit the right notes here, James.”

Ph: Film Frame..©Marvel Studios 2017

Let's talk about young Ego/Kurt

In beginning of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, we get to see good ole Kurt as a very young Ego. It was incredible to see. We were all oohing and awing at the premiere. It literally looked as if they pulled a clip from Kurt's early career for these scenes. However, Kurt explains the process of becoming much more youthful for these scenes. You'll be surprised! 

“We assumed, all of us, that we were just gonna do heavy CGI special effects like they normally do. Before we start going, Dennis (Kurt's makeup artist) said to James – I know his face really, really well. I can really do a lot here to bring him down. If I de-age him some, does that help you? And they said “Yes, that helps very much”. When he was done, I got the right hair going, and the right wardrobe.”

He explains how he felt much younger after everything was put together. At that point, it was time to be younger. Here's how Kurt acted as a younger man:

“You lighten your voice, you move a little quicker. I think the reason this one worked, everybody has said, this really looks real!”

He explains how his makeup artist did most of the work and there was very minimal CGI to make him look as young as he did. His makeup artist knows his face so well that he was able to give him the look that he needed for this role. Now that, is impressive. I want him to come do my makeup every day. 

Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2..Kurt Russell BTS on set as Ego..Ph: Chuck Zlotnick..©Marvel Studios 2017

Kurt works with James Gunn to develop the perfect “Ego”

With a director like James Gunn, actors don't have to be afraid of giving ideas, suggestions, and even requirements. It's a movie for the masses and each actor understands the audience in a different way. I mean, Chris Pratt did a lot of improv and James Gunn absolutely went with it. 

“I said, it has to have the right amount of comedy. We started talking about it and I felt very comfortable with James. I thought his hand was really solidly on it. He really knew what he was doing. And then, working with Chris, primarily, that was just right. As soon as Chris and I saw each other we just kinda smiled, gave each other a hug and said this is clearly right. So that was kind of the early stages and the first processes of it.”

Kurt touches a little bit on becoming Ego and doing exactly what needs to be done to get the story across in the right way.

“You've got to be very careful with [going too far]. But when you’re doing it, you don’t know these things. You can only assume them and try to play the scenes correctly to make that final moment what it should be. “

I think every fan would agree that Kurt did an incredible job, as Ego. I, with the rest of the audience, was very unassuming and satisfied with his role as whole.

Kurt Russell takes a group photo with all of us!

“I do think that Disney, having done them, there’s a different energy to these movies.”

Duh. Marvel and Disney fans are the most loyal that you'll find. I will see every Marvel and Disney movie in theaters just because they turn everything into magic. They sprinkle a little pixie dust and we are drawn right in.

Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2..L to R: Kurt Russell (Ego) and Chris Pratt (Peter Quill/Star-Lord) on set..Ph: Chuck Zlotnick..©Marvel Studios 2017

Kurt Russell talks about choosing the right roles for him

This man has had a very successful career for a reason. He's very picky with his roles. He doesn't want to be stuck in the same type of role for his entire career. Just take it from Zoe Saldana – it's exhausting!

“I was just an actor who didn’t want to do the same thing. For some reason that just repulsed me. Then in Hollywood a lot of times if you have something that’s successful, the next thirty scripts you read are gonna be in that zone. So I disappointed a lot of people by saying, I get it. I get why you want me to do it. But, if you’ll notice, I just did that. I don’t want to do that now. I passed that math test. I wanna go on to this English test now.”

I love that about him. He keeps everyone guessing. You might think he wants to do it all and continue down a certain path because it wasn't successful, but that's not him. He wants to challenge himself and surprise everyone else. 

Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2..Ego (Kurt Russell)..Ph: Film Frame..©Marvel Studios 2017

“So my job was to skip around genres. Skip around characters. Find stories that I liked, that I wanted see. Characters that I wanted to play. And try to challenge myself with giving the director as many options as possible with takes so that he could, or she could, put the movie together and have a lot of options to choose from. When you do that you, you’re putting a lot of trust in the director.”

 I've just skipped around genres. And I really enjoy that. That’s what keeps me going. It keeps me fired up.

As far as the role of Ego, let's just say that Kurt has a very healthy ego. 

Listen, if you’re gonna play God let’s go big! I mean it’s such an obvious thing when you meet him and the first thing out of his mouth is, my name is Ego. He’s very proud of that and you gotta understand that he’s made everything in his life. And so he’s chosen to be that. He chose to come to Earth and look like Kurt Russell. That’s a choice. And his son, the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree.

Touché.

The character name is just as important as the role

Basically, Kurt will not allow a character's name to be something plain or simple. Character names are a big deal for him.

“I love names and characters. You can go back through my litany of characters and you’re gonna find at least twelve great names. I think that’s important. And if they don’t have a great name, I give ‘em a great name.”

So, the when he first heard this character's name. He had something very important to say about it. 

I was very disappointed with when I read the character’s name was J’son. And I said, that's a weak-ass name.

Then, later on I found out that his name is Ego the Living Planet. And I went “that’s more like it.”

Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2..L to R: Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) and Ego (Kurt Russell)..Ph: Chuck Zlotnick..©Marvel Studios 2017

What inspires Kurt while acting?

Maybe it's because he's old school or maybe it makes him feel as if these scenes are “real life”. Whatever it is, Kurt Russell prefers to be on a set with real objects, rather than a green screen room. There's something about these objects that he draws inspiration from. 

“Those are big spaces. What wasn’t there was a room like this with glasses in it. I woulda knocked those outta the way when we were fighting. It would be great to go through those. Or I cut myself. A million things you can come up with, you know. With this movie, mostly it’s backdrop. We had enough there to, give us what was goin’ on. So it was nice to see the movie because you can see the pictures when you’re working. But it’s nice to see the finished project when I saw that.”

Basically, he has much more to work with when there are actual objects in a scene. It really makes me wish I could see him on a real set, during a fight scene. That must be quite intense! It makes me wonder how many things he's broken, without plan, in his career. haha.

More Mention-Worthy moments from Kurt Russell Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Interview

Our Kurt Russell Guardians interview was so much fun that I just had to mention a few more moments from our interview. At one point he talked about being a people-watcher and directed his attention to one of the mommy bloggers. 

“I’m an inveterate people watcher. I’ll do that in this room, you know. I’ll see somebody. Oh, that’s a good one. And then years later I'll read something and say, that reminds me of that, you know, that woman was in the third row, What was that? What was she doin’? You know. I gotta use that.”

It's safe to say that someone (the-mommyhood-chronicles.com) was blushing. 

• Kurt also had a lot to say about working with Chris Pratt. This particular moment really stuck in my mind: “Self-humor is a funny thing and I think that’s probably where Chris Pratt and I probably share a lot.”
• Kurt's makeup artist, Dennis Liddiard has been his makeup artist for 28 years!